Chlorophyll 

The turtle spirit 
rises from the blackness
of the Black Sea

The Black Sea
or the black gloom of New York
sewage, dirt, grime

on the brix
of the bronx

Yet the rising sun
activates
the thin line of chlorophyll
that keeps us alive

There it is
on the horizon
like a sunrise
or a sunset
the legendary green sweep  
glowing from within




Rothko's #10

In 1948
#10
Rothko revisits the figure 
#10
the human figure
he has nearly abandoned 
#10
block head
shoulders
as if seen through the fog of the Humboldt County coast

Through the four fragile panes of my horse shed 
the space in which I live
I see a horse in the field
the horse
seen through the fog of the Humboldt County 
coastal zone

Rothko's figure
not a horse
a man
#10
seen through the fog

The war has had its way with this man
This man fought fascism
fascism outside him
fascism inside him
Mussolini
+ his father

Everything we might have learned
we Americans
#10
#10
we abandoned in favor of mindless, soulless consumerism
it's been said five million times before
You don't believe we're on the eve
of destruction?
#10

cleanliness
godliness
Disneyworld—
It wasn't that we were shocked
It was that we were Midwestern farmers
who had no capacity for complexity
no lexicon for 
this level of evil

#10
Are those breasts?
Is that an apron?
Jesus, man, this is a male figure
a smudged welder 
seen through Humboldt County fog
his leather apron shot to hell
burned-in grime

In the forties and fifties
we should have begun every day with prayer
Wait—We did
The Lord is my shepherd
I shall not want
There was no time in 
my life I felt more important than when I was 
standing in front of the class with 
the black book cradled in my arms
reciting from memory
that psalm
that psalm
not #10
not #10
23
23rd

That was before my parents had destroyed my dream of 
becoming a rabbi

I watch St. Anthony's Hospital
being demolished
here on the west edge of Denver
and I remember 52 years ago
how my parents demolished that dream
with their black
cartoon wrecking ball

Sh'ma Yisroel Adonai Elohenu Adonai Echad
Hear O' Israel, the Lord is Our God, the Lord is One

But what good did anything do?
Our conscience-where did it go?
Everything squashed by our egos
and our own pleasures

#10

In 1948 
Rothko revisits the figure
the figure
#10
he had nearly abandoned
#10
#10